where do you buy film?

I should add macodirect.de for Europe (they even offer free shipping if an order exceeds a certain value).

Maco:
Free shipping if your order is above 99€.

Fotoimpex:
Free shipping already if your order is above 69€.

Fotoimpex also has the better customer service, e.g. if you have product questions.
And they also do a much better job concerning marketing for film in general.

Cheers, Jan
 
Maco:
Free shipping if your order is above 99€.

Fotoimpex:
Free shipping already if your order is above 69€.

Fotoimpex also has the better customer service, e.g. if you have product questions.
And they also do a much better job concerning marketing for film in general.

Cheers, Jan

This free shipping threshold is only for Germany... I am happy with both, but normally I more often find stuff I need at Maco, and they used to have quite good discounts for near expiry/expired/“damaged” goods. I remember buying HP5 with 30% off just because of damaged cartons. But not lately though...
 
Its stuff like the above that has me and others participating in this formerly great community less and less.

Phil Forrest
 
Macodirect seems to be a thorn in the side of many. And I agree with Phil, refrain from any personal attacks.
 
B&H. Prices in Western Canada for 36/TMx400 are more than double! the BH price. Thankfully I have a fridge full of 5x7" TMY2 from previous buys.
 
I usually use Freestyle for the Arista EDU line of roll and sheet film, and for the occasional roll of Ilford or eBay for Ultrafine extreme.
 
When I was working in the UK, I've used AG Photographic. Good shop.
Since I have moved to the continent, I am using Fotoimpex. And I am very satiesfied with them. Excellent service, very fair prices, very fast, and they are very active in supporting the film community in general.
 
I usually buy onsies-twosies from the local camera stores I like to support, and buy the odd brick of 10 from my favourite.

I find some at thrift stores, usually expired with mixed results.

The odd time I get film given to me. I had one big score, with a box of 50 rolls of TRI-X... there was about 35 in it. I should have kept that box.
 
When I was living in LA, I got most of my film at ABC Premiums. I got my paper from either Samy of Freestyle. Where I live now the nearest decent camera store is a 300 mile round trip so I use B&H. I try to order film when the weather is not so hot.
 
Usually B&H, sometimes Freestyle. Even with the poor AU$ and freight the cost works out at about 60% of local prices. I recently checked AU Amazon prices... dearer still than local. Some comparison prices for Tri-x 35mm 36 exposure:
B&H, US$5.79;
Vanbar (Melbourne), AU$14.79;
Amazon AU, AU$19.71
 
I wanted a 100 iso roll, color.

Yesterday I was at a small old shop in a city, rather town, in Belgium.
They had only a few rolls in stock... and not the one I needed.
The old lady said: "100 iso color, they don't make that anymore sir".

:D

Today I was in Brussels, they asked € 11,70 for a roll of Kodak ektar 100, or 160vc.
Too much. How expensive nowadays.
I went to another shop I knew, € 7,70 ... ok deal. It was the last roll they had at 100 iso ...
:bang:
But they don't develop it there, I have to go to another shop again :D
:bang:

Perhaps I should buy from the internet, or in bulk... but I mostly don't like going to a shop asking to develop a film I didn't buy there (as they don't sell it there).
It seems awkward.
 
Hi there,
Buying film is getting increasingly more complicated
-In Southern France, Dept 64, in Saint Jean de Luz, the two oldest photo businesses closed down many years ago (belonging to phox and foci). But, a new shop has recently opened, focusing mainly in analogue photography (I prefer calling it "chemical"), having a good supply of c41 kodak, Fuji and Ilford B/W. It's across rue Gambetta, when going to the docks, look left and you'll see the Fuji Film sign in 90's style.

-In Spain, it's closer to a horror movie.
In Barcelona the most renowned photo shops have closed down in the last 5 years, don't remember the order. Pelayo Street is orphan from photo shops. Nivell 10, Jordi Bas... have just vanished (closed in the last 3 years).
ARPI, one of Barcelona's biggest photo business, with delegations in Madrid, Valencia and Santander, closed 31st july 2015. I remember that in 1994 they bought a whole building, opening 4 floors of shops, each one dedicated to different uses (archive, consumables, equipment, second hand equipment), plus cafeteria and museum in the top floor. The digital era killed it. I recall 10 years ago seeing the empty fridges switched off where there used to be thousands of rolls.
-Fotoprix, one of Spain's biggest distributors, went into receivership and has reinvented into a "photobook" printing business. They still keep shops open but don't have supplies anymore. I bought online the last rolls of Agfa vista lasst february when they closed the online shop

Only two shops remain in Barcelona, Foto K and casanovafoto (the latter having moved to a new location closer to Catalonia Square).

But.. in Madrid it's another story, many shops still soldier on. Fotocasion is one of them working on and offline.

In Northern Spain there are quite a lot of photo shops still open having film in stock. In Laredo (northern Spain village) there are two of them: Foto Caren and Fotos Quique.

Norther Spain is also the headquarters of Foto-R3 (Spain's full-source analog supplier, located in Gijon -Asturias-). They have on and offline photo shop

But what really puzzled me is that in Eastern-bloc countries chemical photography is still coveted. I recall in 2017 when running out of film in Moscow, I found by far the biggest chemical photo shop in the digital age still trading which had huge stocks of chemicals,paper and films. It was in a corner of the architecture university, near Bolshoi theater.

And two weeks ago in Riga, Latvia. Running out of film and found a traditional photo shop which had fuji and kodak colour film. Bought a c200 36 exp for less than 5 euros which is very good price. They are located in Sarlotes Iela, number 6, close to the Dailes theater.
Hope that helps
Best regards
 
Until last month, it was from B&H. Then Maryland started enforcing the Supreme Court decision and began collecting sales tax on items bought via the internet. Fortunately, I'm less than five miles from Delaware and there are two decent camera stores in a college/university town. Their prices for Tmax 400 - 35mm - are about what I was paying from B&H and Delaware doesn't have sales tax. So I stock up every month or so and get to spend time looking at, and sometimes buying from, a decent collection of manual focus film cameras and lenses. And as a plus, the staff is knowledgable about film, darkroom work, and old cameras. The store also stocks Sprint chemistry and Ilford RC paper. So that's where I go.
 
Any suggestions for the UK and rest of Europe?

Depending on what I'm after:

https://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/

https://shop.photouk.co.uk/ (used to be the old Fuji film shop - sometimes have sales / special offers on)

https://www.mathersoflancashire.co.uk/ (use these guys for bulk purchase of rolls of films - again sometimes special offers / short dated stock)

https://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/ (usually very competitive on price and quick delivery)

Ebay for the odd bargain (and it is the odd bargain these days...)

John
 
For Europe mainly (but they also ship worldwide):
www.fotoimpex.de
They have a huge programme (biggest in Europe), very fair prices, they are also very fast. Offer also an excellent service.

And what I really like: Despite of most other online distributors who just sell the stuff Fotoimpex has been very active in promoting traditional film photography and helping beginners. They also have a nice "brick and mortar" store in Berlin. It is real fun shopping there :).
And their profits are exclusively invested in their sister company Adox. Therefore the money goes to a real, fully dedicated film, photo paper and photo chemistry manufacturer. That is absolutely unique in the current market.

A good source for the outstanding Fuji Hunt E6 home kits is Retrocamera:
https://www.retrocamera.be/nl/152-donkere-kamer-kleurenchemie-filmontwikkelaars
Doing E6 at home gives perfect quality, is very fast and extremely easy. And very cheap. I love it.
 
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